Posts tagged toTechnology

AeroFarms’ food growing method, called aeroponics, requires no dirt, no sun and needs about 95% less water than traditional farming. It also applies 40% less fertilizer, and no pesticides. The company uses rehabilitated buildings, such as warehouses or old industrial plants, instead of constructing sophisticated massive, modern facilities from scratch, which dramatically reduces the property costs. While about ten years ago, indoor farming was associated with high costs and visions of people in lab coats walking around plants in soil many stories up in the air, the reality today is… Read more

In June and July 2017, Huawei was found to be the second bestselling smartphone brand globally. Whilst the race to become the top smartphone brand has usually been a two way race between Samsung and Apple, the inclusion of Huawei into this race at least temporarily is indicative of future trends. The company’s fast growth in the most populous parts of the world, namely China and the wider Asia-Pacific region suggests that Huawei is certainly a force to be reckoned with in the coming years. The strong growth potential in… Read more

Teaching computers to learn on their own has been the core aim of AI research, with the world’s largest tech companies, including Facebook, Google and Baidu, all racing to develop the best techniques. Although there have been breakthroughs in speech and image recognition, the machines still struggle to handle basic physical tasks. Kindred AI, a Canadian start up, decided to tackle these issues applying a new, innovative approach based on the technique of immersive teleoperation. According to its founders, the best way to make robots as smart as humans, is… Read more

In recent years, two new genetic technologies have started a scientific and medical revolution. One is the ability to easily decode the information in our genes and it is relatively well known. It began with the development of tests for genetic diseases. They have proven they can be quite successful, leading to a reduction of human suffering. The other, not yet clearly understood by the general public, is the newfound capacity to modify genes at will. New editing tools to create genetically defined human cell lines have come to the… Read more

After a long period of rapid, double digit growth, the Chinese economy entered a more sustainable phase of development, based on innovation and consumption. Given the large population of 1.3 billion in China, the explosive growth of smartphone users, e-commerce, and online content consumption and creation led to a digital revolution in almost all industries and business sectors. While the Chinese Communist Party is trying to match its social control in the real world with the virtual world, which becomes more and more restrictive, the country’s internet is thriving and… Read more

Online storage is a huge leap forward in technology, allowing files to be accessed from anywhere without the need to send them via email. Files can be shared in a much simpler fashion and can be locked to ensure that any changes made are present in a single file as opposed to numerous versions of the file. This online system serves as a backup for companies and customers. A network of banking telecommunications (SWIFT) has been the target of numerous hacking and data leaks over recent years, serving to reduce… Read more

The mobile phone market is extremely competitive and in order to retain customers, companies need to provide them with the best products and also a good level of security and customer service. Samsung is attempting to recoup its losses from the Note 7 from 2016 after it was recalled and ceased manufacturing with its latest release the Samsung Galaxy S8. The fear for Samsung is that it will not only be facing competition from the market but also from its customers whose trust has been put to the test in… Read more

Google and Uber started off as friends with Google parent Alphabet investing $258m in Uber in 2013. They then became competitors, as Uber started experimenting with its fleet of self-driving cars in 2016. Finally, in 2017, both companies ended as adversaries in court, engaging in a bitter legal fight to control the future of transportation. The suit details the lengths Waymo goes to in order to protect its trade secrets, including purchasing LiDAR components from numerous vendors and completing assembly in-house to prevent any single vendor from knowing everything about… Read more

Historically hundreds of games have been produced with a range of missions or goals to be achieved. It is a shame when these games are forgotten or when a game disk breaks or is scratched and can no longer be played. This has led to games appearing on later consoles, being able to buy the original games for a discount price. The focus of this article is on the recent announcement of the remastering of the original Crash Bandicoot games for PS4, the continuation of games such as Spyro the… Read more

Ford, one of the world’s largest automotive and mobility companies, announced that it will be developing autonomous cars for use by 2021. As part of this goal, Ford will be investing in several startups, continuing its trend of making investments in technology in recent years. For example, Ford’s recent technology investments include Easy Access Door System, Active City Stop, Hands-Free Tailgate, and Active Park Assist. In the announcement, Ford said that it will also be investing in companies developing advanced algorithms, 3D mapping, LiDAR, and radar and camera sensors. These… Read more

Uber’s once seemingly irresistible march to world domination has suffered a setback as it agreed to merge its business operations in China with local competitor Didi Chuxing. Uber had been employing the practices that served it well elsewhere, by engaging in subsidizing of rides and drivers’ income to gain market share. However, in China a domestic ride sharing incumbent made from the merger of Didi and Kuadi in February 2015 (later renamed Didi Chuxing) could match Uber’s financial power, as it drew backing from Chinese internet companies and Apple. The… Read more

The line between the auto and tech industries is rapidly blurring, with the pursuit of autonomous driving and a shift from car ownership towards car sharing and ride sharing. China is widely viewed as the next frontier for growth and many market players are looking to establish a foothold in this country, which requires significant investment. To keep up with changing market trends, most major auto makers are investing in their own driverless-car technology, which is less costly if done in cooperation with high-tech companies, like Google or Apple. The… Read more

WWE is the largest wrestling promotion globally, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Its recent financial performance has seen revenue and net income grow, with growth across most segments. In physical figures however the company’s TV ratings and live event attendance is down, with its key demographic of older males alienated by the company’s ham-fisted approach to mainstream appeal. One way the company has won back some wayward fans is the NXT brand, available exclusively on the WWE network. The successor to the Florida Championship Wrestling developmental territory,… Read more

The technology required to produce an autonomous vehicle already exists in specific circumstances. The challenge is to make self-driving cars viable in all locations, all conditions and all situations. Incumbent automotive manufacturers, together with major suppliers to the industry, are well along the road towards commercial production having already implemented a number of more basic autonomous driving features. Yet there remain significant barriers to the adoption of autonomous driving, not least of which will be consumer perception. Some of the key concerns in this regard will be skepticism around the… Read more

The nascent smart city industry is a potential goldmine for a whole host of players – utility companies, data analytics providers and, perhaps most importantly, providers of communications infrastructure and networks. One company, Cisco, is poised to greatly capitalize on then burgeoning industry as the world moves towards a smart, connected and data driven existence through the Internet of Things (IoT) or, as the company prefers, the “Internet of Everything” (IoE). It is worth noting that there is no hard definition of what constitutes a smart city, but a distinction… Read more

2015 marked the 50th anniversary of Moore’s Law, a famous and remarkably accurate prediction made by the co-founder of Intel Corporation about the pace of technological innovation. The prediction stems from an observation regarding the development of semiconductor devices and has driven the commercial success of Intel. But in 2014, Intel reorganized its business following an abject failure to take part in the smartphone and tablet revolutions amid a simultaneous decline in the consumer PC market. In 2014, the Intel management team finally decided to largely give up on the… Read more

Big Data has been heralded as a ground-breaking technology that will transform the way that businesses operate. As such, major organizations have been quick to understand and implement Big Data analytics in a number of different ways. The most common implementations have to date been limited to internally-focused information, through fairly standardized techniques. There are therefore a number of externally-focused areas in which Big Data technologies could be further utilized, as well as the potential for stretching the industry towards ever more complex analytics. Nevertheless, there must also be some… Read more

Technological innovation, often regarded as ‘the great growling engine of change’, has long been synonymous with powering economic development. Equally, through necessity, industrial growth helps to drive innovation and the creation of new technologies. Thus in theory at least, both economic and technological growth feed off each other to sustain and accelerate development. Yet in recent years the opposite has been the case; the global economy has gone through the pains of a financial crisis at a time when patent applications, which are a reasonably good measure of the level… Read more

As explored in the MarketLine case study King Digital Entertainment plc: Sweet success of Candy Crush but doubts remain King Digital Entertainment plc’s (King) initial public offering (IPO) was preceded by a great deal of fanfare and publicity but failed to reach its target price as investors feared an over-reliance on smash-hit mobile casual game Candy Crush Saga (Candy Crush). Originally incorporated as Midasplayer.com Limited in 2002, King has experienced a period of rapid growth, both in terms of revenues and profits, in recent years. 2013 saw revenues soar by… Read more

Introduction The global internet access market grew at a good rate in 2012, despite some minor deceleration from previous years. Internet access, in general, is becoming more of a necessary lifestyle expenditure in many developed markets, meaning that consumers consider internet access to be something they are unlikely to go without. Even in times where disposable income is fairly low, we see consumers retaining internet access contracts. This is good news for the future of the market as although in coming years some regions will eventually become saturated, they are… Read more

At the end of October 2012, EE launched its 4G services in the UK, kicking off the technology’s implementation in the UK, the fourth largest mobile broadband industry in the world. Since then, the company has expanded its coverage to over 50 cities nationwide. This blog will evaluate the case for 4G services in the UK, how effective EE’s rollout of the service has been, and future challenges posed by the company’s rivals. There are two main variations of current technology that can be classed as 4G: Long Term Evolution… Read more

Microsoft’s U-turn on its Xbox One DRM and Internet connectivity policies has completely changed the dynamics of the upcoming battle for next generation console dominance. The decision to go back on previously asserted policies has meant that many of the competitive advantages held by competitor Sony’s machine, the PlayStation 4 (PS4) have been negated. However, the decision has also confused Microsoft’s strategy, and the Xbox One’s higher price tag remains an issue. One step forward, two steps back: Microsoft’s initial DRM policies, which placed restrictions on the lending of physical… Read more

Following a weaker yen (the dollar and euro have both appreciated almost 20% against the yen in recent months), the giant electronics, entertainment, and technology exporter has recorded a net profit of Y43bn ($435m), a remarkable turnaround from the Japanese firm’s Y475bn loss a year earlier. Indeed, currency market trends, largely brought about by the consequences or perceived future consequences of the Bank of Japan’s monetary, fiscal, and regulatory easing (what has been deemed Abenomics, after the incumbent Premier’s pushing for the changes), have been necessary for the turnaround, the… Read more